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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  5. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  6. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  7. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  8. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  11. Have you found your soul ________________?
  12. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  13. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  14. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  17. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  18. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  19. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  20. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  24. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. bat — the animal
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. mate — a friend
  5. pound — to hit hard
  6. march — the month
  7. pound — a weight
  8. march — the month
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. mate — to breed
  11. mate — a partner
  12. march — music
  13. lash — an eyelash
  14. chest — of your body
  15. clip — for paper
  16. lash — a whip stroke
  17. kick — a thrill
  18. pound — for dogs
  19. chest — a box
  20. lash — to lash out
  21. clip — to cut
  22. clip — a video
  23. kick — in football
  24. kick — with a leg

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com